Misty, a Fleetway Annual produced by IPC Magazines, was a very unusual thing – a supernatural horror comic aimed at young girls. As a child I was always fascinated by the more shadowy things of this world, the more mysterious and less fluffy and pink the better.

I first found Misty not so much in a Cavern of Dreams, but in a box of old Beano comics. It was a rainy day at school and play-time had been cancelled, everyone was left kicking their heels in the classroom.

Leafing through those discarded comics I was immediately hooked – I mean these comics were just what I had been looking for as a proto-gothy 10 year old. I couldn’t believe that someone had thrown them out and they had ended up at school – I mean as soon as I saw them they were major ‘objects of desire’ to me – how they never found their way home with me I will never know!

Not only did the comics have weekly serials, one-off stories, but they also had short stories and factual articles about the supernatural and quirky historical facts – so the proto-history geek in me was also happy. I think what I loved most was that the stories didn’t peddle the line that there was always a happy ending…things often ended badly for the heroines of Misty stories.

It was only a minor set back to discover that the weekly comic had long gone – it only lasted for 101 issues between 1978 – 1980 so I was too late for that feast of the macabre. But, Misty still graced the world in the form of her Annuals and for the next four years no Christmas was complete without my Misty Annual.

Nothing lasts for ever though, and eventually I traded in my Misty annuals in exchange for some more ‘grown up’ horror novels at local second-hand book shop.

It didn’t take me long to regret it, and now I am re-claiming my Misty collection bit by bit. Even after all this time they are still great stories. And although the Misty Annual is no more, you can still read some of the complete stories online thanks to Egmont who now own the Misty copyright. Stories appear on the official Misty website:

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Granny Irene’s Guide to the Afterlife Book one: Revenge By Ingrid Hall- a Review

This is the first book in a series by North East author Ingrid Hall. Book One: Revenge is a large tome coming in at over 800 pages. It is also written entirely from the perspective of the main character Granny Irene, a deceased octogenarian from North Shields whose favorite phrase is ‘start thinking with your brains and not your bum!’ So be warned: expect geordieisms and unconventional grammar! For non Geordies it may helpful to think of the Big Brother voice over man or watch an episode of Geordie Shore (well – maybe not) in order to establish your reading ‘voice’!

The main plot driver of this novel is that Granny Irene, recently deceased, has found herself in Viking Heaven and isn’t quite sure why! It transpires that her murderous grand-daughter is about to trigger Ragnorok and Granny must prevent it . Along the way she must rescue a rogue goddess, explore her past lives and try to bring down a government. All in a days’ work for Auld Granny Irene.

The book features a number of prominent North East landmarks – St Mary’s Light House, Lindisfarne, Tynemouth Priory are all pivotal to the story and it also co-opts a number of North East and Scottish historical figures who feature in the narrative in somewhat unconventional roles. Granny also provides a moving description of two 19th Century pit disasters that resulted in miners demanding better conditions. Granny’s views on politics are of a distinctly socialist variety and there is a strong sense of outrage and social injustice expressed, this comes across strongly in the description of Granny’s experiences during the 1984 miners strike which explores the hardships experienced by the miners families and the sense of community it fostered.

The other main plot driver is that a futuristic government have legalised the exploitation of the working classes – women particularly – by opening a flagship brothel in Whitley Bay. Granny Irene must work to bring this oppressive system down.

This novel also describes Irene’s spiritual journey exploring the nature of past lives and the afterlife. After all, Granny Irene has to figure out why she has the job of putting the world to rights. Because of this, and the sheer vastness of the story, sometimes the events may seem to be a little disconnected, but persist with it. Everything and everyone appears in the novel for a reason and this is all tied up at the end -but with enough questions left over to ensure the next volume should be quite intriguing…

All in all, this is an unconventional and sometimes controversial read, but a good one.

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Someone once said that poets are the conscience of a nation – and I think that is true to some extent. However I have always felt that the power of a poet is in being able to express those feelings and emotions we all share but which most of us cannot put into words.

Esto Perpetua is such a book. Intrigued by the title I resorted to Google for a translation and came up with: ‘Is this forever’, ‘this is forever and ‘may she live forever’. All of them evocative and all of them subtly different and perhaps this is appropriate for a book of poetry – built upon the shifting sands of human emotions – why would you want to pin down a fixed meaning when there could be so many…?

From the outset this book draws you in, the prologue is a witty noir-ish prose scene in which the author reveals something of himself and his motives to an unnamed intruder….”Tell him that real poetry has returned.” he declares…

As I began to read the poems I could sense the echoes of Tennyson, Browning and TS Elliott in the meter and style, but this was not simply a pastiche or homage to older ‘greater’ poets. Todd creates his own distinctive voice dressed up in these ‘borrowed’ clothes. Sometimes moving, sometimes profound, sometimes quirky – he moves between the witty cleverness of Food For Thought (quoted in full below) to the brief but damning social critique of ‘On Salvation’ to the reflective and heart rending poems of Unexpected Meeting or Midsummer Images (Quoted in full below).

I think poetry speaks best for itself so, with the kind permission of S.A.Todd, I have reproduced two of his poems in full (Midsummer Images and Food for Thought Copyright 2012 S.A.Todd). Details of how to purchase Esto Perpetua can be found at the foot of this post.

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Welcome to the haunted palace. The name is inspired by the immortal Edgar Allan Poe and his poem of the same name. Especially its evocative final lines –

“Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms, that move fantastically
To a discordant melody,
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
And laugh-but smile no more.”

In general I want to share my love of history, poetry and literature and of course the supernatural . In particular, I want to celebrate the times and places where these elements interweave and produce that special kind of magic.